AOTY 2014 Review - 2014 Forest Hills Drive - @JColeNC

It's December 2014. Time is winding down and my staff is getting our album of the year lists together and boom! J. Cole announces his album, 2014 Forest Hills Drive is dropping in two weeks.

No lead singles, no features and still went platinum. No one has been able to do that since Nas in the 90's. The hype for the Born Sinner follow up was immense. We only got a few loosies and give away a after that project. He then performs on Letterman and performs an impactful new song, Be Free. I think it was deep that he played this in light of what was going on rather than a single from his album on the Late Show.

Let's get into the music. The Intro reminds me of Be Free. Sonically the keys provide a similar ambiance and he beckons to his people with the same question, "Do you wanna be free?" It transitions to the official first track, January 28th. This serves as the musical introduction. Verse one tackles his growth in the industry, verse two goes full circle and how he's touched by what was going on in Ferguson, MO at the time. The meat of the album comes next. Wet Dreamz I remember talking about how he painted another story we could all relate to in losing our "V card" in high school. The story telling continues in 03' Adolescence. A Tale of 2 Citez is next. I love everything about this song musically and the delivery is perfect. The beat is boom-bap but still something gritty enough the trap lovers can get down with. His flow leading to and on the hook was so tough. I'd go to another Cole concert just to see this song performed live. I also love the choral singing the bridge at the outro with him, clever.

Fire Squad is another radio jam that gets deep in the third verse about white privilege in the hip-hop community. He even name drops Timberlake, Eminem, Iggy, and Macklemore. "All good jokes contain true sh*t," Indeed. I like what Logic had to say about it especially because like J. Cole he is the product of mulatto parents. St. Tropez is still in my rotation a year later. It uses the same sample Mobb Deep used from an old Ester Phillips song in 1971. This song changes the mood of the album, really smooth, really chill. His message is about climbing up in the industry comparing St Tropez, France to Hollywood, CA. This isn't the first time he voiced his opinion on how fake Los Angeles is, remember LAnd of the Snakes? The sound changes but the theme stays the same in G.O.M.D. I don't think I understood this until now as I type. He's always explained his concerns on the mainstream. He let Nas down to make a good record and get heard. Whenever he does that he refers to himself as Hollywood Cole as he does on this song. It's funny because it's an oxymoron. The song is definitely a radio hit and bouncy like Big Sean's IDFWU. Whether I was thinking too deep or it flew over my head it's genius. Even the video paints a tale of how the people react to his plans, this time in the 1800's. The lyrics just show a more arrogant Cole talking about commercial music. It's pretty deep. To fully understand I think he threw in a curve ball with the words "The make/break up." Listen again for yourself. No Role Modelz is another song about the women from the city of angels and how to handle them. It's simple, no one likes a captain save-a-hoe. The personification and tribute to James Avery from the fresh prince was dope. Especially thinking back to Breakdown on his first album. Fast forward to his first official single after the album dropped, Apparently. As far as production on the entire album, J. Cole really took a liking to playing the keys more than usual. Omen, Vinylz, Cardiak and others threw some assists in that aspect as well.

All in all as I think it takes a little bit of time to take Cole in. Everytime you listen you hear something you may have missed even if you know all the lyrics. Perhaps that's why last year Cole was our split decision AOTY winner. I just needed more time to really get it rather than the two weeks before year's end. It's funny because in that review I rated his album higher (4.79 of 5 Stars) than the actual winner. Before Forest Hills, I complained Cole was telling the same story. I'm mullato, I graduated, I want Jay's spot. I didn't realize it took all of those stories to continue painting the grand picture, and it's still being painted. First to third album he's really grown and the fans have right with him. I really believe if one sample didn't get cleared and the album dropped three weeks later, we'd have a different AOTY for 2015. I guess that's why it sparked the Kendrick/Cole argument we've had all year. Read the original AOTY 2014 Review here.

Editorial Review: #AOTY 2014 picks by @RamseySaidWHAT

Well, this has definitely without a doubt been the hardest year for me to write this review. Hip-Hop has been interesting to say the least this year. From January to December plenty of comercial music released and I didn't find myself listening to most of any of it (crazy coming from a hip-hop blogger huh?). The music I looked forward to got pushed back like Kendrick and Joey Bada$$. It's safe to say I spent this year listening to lots of music from 2013, and mixtapes. The only exceptions were the albums that made this list and a few that just missed getting on the list. 2014 was really a year for singles as well. Don't believe me? Do me a favor, turn on the radio and all you'll is Iggy or Chris Brown murdering the charts (from a jail cell for most of the summer, go figure). Back to the topic at hand, my peers made a lot of points in their reviews when they said the year was good not great. Niles respectively declined and said there were enough quality albums to compile a decent list. I also have to agree with him when he said rap's heavy hitters were absent this year, but when based on the criteria (lyrics, production, flow, popularity, sales, and uniqueness), only a few stood out in my eyes. Please remember this is an opinion piece and not just a list of favorites. Please don't murder me too bad. The good one is for tomorrow. Until then, My album of the year picks for 2014 is as follows.

Number Five: NehruvianDOOM - Bishop Nehru & MF DOOM

If you've ever read anything I've written, you know I love music that reminds me of childhood. The 80's and 90's. NehruvianDOOM is an album born during the wrong decade and I love it. The production was superb, well it's produced soley by DOOM himself. The only exception was a collaboration with his partner Madlib on Dangerous. Although being produced by a legend Bishop Nehru still shined and was far from upstaged by his elder-statesman.  It's nice to see such young talent emerging reminding us hip-hop is still a young man's game. Niles actually did a review on this one so for more click here. NehruvianDOOM gets a 3.89 of 5 on the Ramsey Rating Scale.

Number Four: Oxymoron - ScHoolboy Q

I have a lot of respect for this album. In what seemed like a very very off year for the genre ScHoolboy Q came with a bang. His album dropped in January. For him to be able to stand the test of 12 months and even make the list is very impressive. Until July, you couldn't tell me this wasn't the best album in 2014. On top of being the first in the genre to really drop a major LP he was the first in the TDE stable who promised albums from the entire clan. The first and the only one of them to make the list, sorry Soulo. I happened to be off work and was able to stream his album listener with Rosenberg the eve of the release date. That was the first time I heard the deluxe version including songs like Collard Greens with Kendrick Lamar, Studio featuring BJ the Chicago Kid, and Man of the Year. Break the Bank and Yay Yay spoke to the pusher man ScHoolboy Q really was for him and his family, more importantly his daughter Joy you can see on the album cover (much like The Game's). Oxymoron start to finish was remarkable and definitely deserved to make everyone's top 10 including my own. I rated this a 3.91 of 5 on the Ramsey Rating Scale.

Number Three: Nobody's Smiling - Common

This is where it got hard for me. 3 through one have been interchangeable until actually sitting down and writing this. Nobody's Smiling was the only thing in my ears through the summer as far as hip-hop goes (well Rae Sremmurd too cuz those kids turn up man). I was gonna cover this one but I let Niles bless us with this review as well which you can find here. Tracks that stood out to me were Kingdom, Real, and the self title. Kingdom features Vince Staples and a choral background on the beat. The duo trade verses about their respective cities of Chicago and Long Beach, CA. Real features Elijah Blake (who this time I actually did the review on) and is somewhat the climatic turning point of the album where it takes a brief turn. Blake lays down crooning but catchy vocals. I live by the beach. This was one of those "Roll down the window and feel the warm air on a July day while listening to this with your shawty riding shotgun" tracks.

Don't be confused, Nobody's Smiling was not a happy album. I found it very timely as it released a week before the murder of Mike Brown in Ferguson, MO. The self title was an ode to Chicago but not in a Homecoming Kanye sense. Common spoke about the things not talked about. What I liked most about that track was the spoken word piece by Malik Yusef at the end of the track. Nobody's Smiling recieves 4.3 stars on the Ramsey Rating Scale.

Number Two: 2014 Forest Hills Drive - J. Cole

This is for you Jermaine. You did the same thing Childish Gambino did last year with this December release thing. That left Glover with only a honorable mention last year. It's only right that Cole stops here. Just like Common, Forest Hills Drive was timely. Common got the initial murder, Cole got the indictment verdict. 2014 Forest Hills Drive makes my list because it came with no promotion, no singles, and was still arguably the emcee's best project in his impressive discography. As all Cole albums I find myself able to relate to him. He speaks to me in different ways. The frustration and longing for freedom in me was heard in the Intro and January 28th. "Do you wanna be, happy?" Reminiscing to my first time was Wet Dreamz "Cuz I aint never did this before." Wet Dreamz was a nice storyteller track. Simple boom bap beat that doesn't overshadow what he's saying. A Tale of 2 Citez is by far the hardest track on the album. Gritty beat, gritty bars, instant repeat. G.O.M.D. is another one of those acronym tracks kinda like IDFWU. That's all I have to say about that (Forest Gump voice*). 2014 Forest Hills Drive was my favorite album this year. Perhaps if it were out longer and the initial buzz wore off I could rate it fairly with the rest. Because of that, I have to stop you there (again). Cole World huh? 2014 Forest Hills Drive gets 4.79 on the Ramsey Rating Scale.

Number One: Under Pressure - Logic

I can't believe all of the other contributors to the site missed this one. Under Pressure was dope through and through. Frankly, I'm tired of everyone sleeping on Young Sinatra. He's been around for awhile and just now made the XXL Freshman list this past year. On top of the Editor's (me) nod on the AOTY list, iTunes also voted him as the best hip-hop album in 2014 as well. And no it's not cuz his skin pale because he still won't sell like Eminem or Adele (get it?). To the point. Under Pressure was fuego, the one fire album no one listened to. The self title track was my favorite for three reasons. One, it was self produced and done with such flare. Two was the video. The visual was insane and shot like it was a first person shooter. Three, flow. He engaged you with all of the before mentioned things but when you listen to what he said and how it was delivered it was nuts. Other impressive tracks were Driving Miss Daisy featuring Childish Gambino and Buried Alive. Under Pressure was different and equally amazing considering it was a debut album. Not a ton of features so you really see what Logic can bring to the table. I gave Under Pressure 4.71 on the Ramsey Rating Scale. It scores less than Forest Hills Drive but I believe it was still the better album of the two, how's that for an Oxymoron and I'm not talking ScHoolboy (okay the puns are corny).

I said before I started writing this was difficult to judge this year. It was hard to leave out Nicki Minaj and Ab Soul off my AOTY list. I also struggled leaving Anomaly by Lacrae off as a crossover album. I generally hate Christian Rap. I love Gospel, I love hip-hop. I separate church and state (literally). Isaiah Rashaad also impressed with his Cilvia Demo towards the top of the year but couldn't hang with the rest. Those are my picks, hope you enjoyed reading. Keep listening mates.

Album of the Year #AOTY 2014 Preview

Everybody loves lists huh....

It is now 2015 which means it's time for WTM to review and recap last year's music in the hip-hop world. This is the 4th year we've done this review and might have been the most difficult years to pick a clear winner. Some music stood out better than others but the debate could easily be taken back and forth. The number one spot might have been the most difficult to pick this year more than As always the review is based on lyricism (I hate that word), production, flow, uniqueness, popularity, and sales. Through the week you'll see what the WTM writers and staff had to think about 2014 in hip-hop and where they ranked their top 5 albums. You'll also see the editor's list, then the grand WTM list in it's entirety.

Until then, keep a lookout and keep listening my friends....